"Awesome!" 5 out of 5 Screens
Mac|Life has given Spector Pro mac its Editors' Choice award, rating it 5 out of 5 "Screens" in a recent review. Senior Editor Susie Ochs called Spector Pro "powerful software" and said "to keep an eye on who's talking to your kids online or which websites your employees are visiting, Spector Pro just works." She liked Spector Pro's "Simple installation, Searchable logs and Stealth mode". In describing the stealth setting Ochs noted, "when the app runs in Stealth mode, it's truly stealth, not appearing in the Dock, Applications folder, Force Quit menu, System profiler, or anywhere else." The review also praised the product's speed adding, "In our tests, Spector Pro didn't slow down the Mac's performance at all." She also praised the product's web recording feature stating, "it even logged sites we visited while using Safari's Private Browsing Mode."
SpectorSoft monitoring software has been selected by multiple law enforcement agencies as the backbone of their public Internet safety programs and is highlighted at Internet safety seminars for parents held around the country. Sergeant Paul Garcia of the Albuquerque, NM Police Department said Spector is a key component of its community outreach program, which is designed to inform and educate concerned parents about the growing incidence of pedophiles approaching children through various PC and Internet activities. "In my opinion Spector is an outstanding product for parents, and is a great tool to help protect children from the dangers they face while online. Along with our IT team, I tested several products, and our first choice is Spector."
Calling it an "easy to use activity monitoring program for Macs", MacWorld UK noted the many new enhancements in Spector Pro Mac saying, "Spector Pro Mac goes beyond the original Spector for Mac's unrivaled ability to take screen snapshots of everything a user does at the Mac and on the internet because the new program includes many of the powerful features of the award-winning Spector Pro for Windows, including: Website visit log, Record and review conversations on all the major chat clients: iChat, AIM, MSN, Yahoo, and Adium.; Email Activity: Get a copy of every email sent or received; User Activity and remote viewing which lets you review recordings from another computer, PC or Mac, in your home or office without having to return to the computer you are monitoring."
SpectorSoft has been presented with the iParenting Media Award for its Spector Pro mac monitoring software for parents. iParenting Media is a Disney Internet Group site focused on parenting. Products submitted for the awards were reviewed by parents, experts, licensed childcare centers and schools nationwide.
Discussing Spector for Mac's support for Leopard as well as Mac OS X, MacNN.com noted that "Spector is designed to take periodic screenshots - from seconds to minutes apart - and store them on the hard drive for later viewing. In addition to screen monitoring, Spector can also log keystrokes, allowing parents to view all chats, emails, and websites that were visited."
Cyber Bully expert and researcher Dr. Justin Patchin talked about the importance of using SpectorSoft software on "The Laura Ingraham Show." The radio show, which is heard on more than 350 stations, featured actual stories from Dr. Patchin and practical tips on how parents can protect their children including the use of software from SpectorSoft.
"Employees have come to expect that their company keeps track of the web sites they visit and the emails they send," according to Aleksandra Todorova in her article "Office Spies." The article notes, "Internet monitoring doesn't end with going through email and a list of visited web sites. Now, thanks to software programs like SpectorSoft, employers can record practically everything employees do on their computers and watch it as if on videotape," says Jay Mellon, vice president at AtNetPlus, a Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio-based IT security consultancy and SpectorSoft Partner.
Wall Street Journal writer Katherine Wegert featured SpectorSoft in a recent article about how important it is for businesses to look at technology that can monitor, filter and block access to inappropriate Web sites, e-mails and instant messaging systems. The WSJ article covered the experience of SpectorSoft's customer, Ajax Boiler Inc.
Ajax Boiler found one of its 100 employees bringing a rival's proprietary information into their system and another reading the HR manager's e-mail. According to the article, "Both staff members would have escaped notice if it weren't for a recent upgrade to Ajax's security software. The product, made by Vero Beach, FL-based SpectorSoft Corp., essentially records everything employees do on their computers including Web sites they have visited, time spent looking at a site, e-mails they have sent, and more."
The article, which also appeared in the Associated Press, WSJ.com, BusinessWeek.com, Forbes, and YahooFinance.com, continued: "The greatest risk to company security now comes from within, security analysts say. In the past, the threat has been mostly from spammers and hackers. Employers are increasingly relying on advanced software to protect their systems against the new threats."
In an article printed in The Wall Street Journal titled 'Remote Control: Parents Use Software To Track Kids' Online Activity From Work,' writer Sue Shellenbarger discussed the concerns parents have regarding their children's Internet use during the summer months. According to Shelllenbarger, "More than one-fourth of parents cite worries about kids' spending too much time online as a top summer child-care fear." The article noted that a growing number of parents are using consumer software such as Spector Pro to monitor their kids' home Internet use from work. According to Shellenbarger, "Parents say they gain invaluable information about their children, plus the power to control what they do online."
In a People Magazine article titled 'MySpace Nation: The Controversy' some of the dangers of MySpace are noted including how it "attracts creeps and pervs." The story notes that MySpace is "an online playground for kids with an astounding 16 million having their own web pages." Internet safety expert Parry Aftab advises readers that it is imperative that parents know their child's MySpace password, and if the child won't volunteer it, to use SpectorSoft software to uncover the password.
In a story titled 'Tracking your Kids Online' the author asked parents if they should track the Internet activity of their children. Rebecca Hagelin, who uses SpectorSoft to track her three teenagers, said, "Absolutely...It's allowed my children to enjoy all the benefits the latest technology has to offer them, and it's allowed me to protect them from the dangers of some of the new technology," she says. "It's a win-win."
In a news feature titled, "You Can Be Big Brother with Spector", The Mac Observer talked about Spector for Mac saying, "Spector works by automatically taking periodic screen shots of a PowerPC-based Macintosh and saves those screenshots to a local or network drive for later viewing." They went on to say, "Spector is ideal for consumers and corporations alike. Consumers now have the ability to see exactly what their children do on their computer when they cannot be around. Corporations and educational institutions can make sure their employees and students are using their computers appropriately."
Exploring parenting in the age of the Internet, Ladies' Home Journal examined monitoring software programs that help keep kids from harm. One suburban Philadelphia housewife who uses Spector finds that it brought her 'peace of mind.' According to the story, titled "Mother is Watching," Julia was concerned about her daughter Melanie after finding her missing from the house at 3 AM. She turned to Spector and found that everything was okay. Despite leaving the home at 3 AM, her daughter had met a female friend that night and Julia was reassured that "nothing dramatic was going on." Asked if monitoring is worth it, she said "There'd be a lot more conflict if I wasn't sure Melanie was behaving herself".
In an article titled "Spies Like Us" Macworld talked about Spector for Mac. According to writer Lisa Schmeiser, "Once a Windows-only program, Spector - which crouches silently on a hard drive, taking snapshots of on-screen activity for later playback - now lets anyone running Mac OS 8 or later spy on anyone who happens to be using the computer. The utility is both undetectable and invulnerable to being disabled by anyone but the installer."
A TIME Magazine front cover feature titled 'Internet Insecurity' featured SpectorSoft products. According to the writer, Adam Cohen, "What can you expect if someone puts SpectorSoft's Spector on your computer? It will secretly take hundreds of snapshots an hour of every website, chat group and e-mail that appears on your screen, and store them so that the special someone who is spying on you can review them later. SpectorSoft's eBlaster will send the spy detailed e-mail reports updating your computer activities as often as every 30 minutes. These products work in stealth mode, so the people being spied on are totally unaware."
In their feature, 'Top 10 Tech Trends to Bet On', Eric Nee & Peter H. Lewis reported on a Spector customer who used the product to catch a teacher who was preying on his daughter. According to the writers, "A man in Memphis secretly installed Spector on his 13-year-old stepdaughter's personal computer last fall and discovered, by reading her private e-mail, that she was having sex with her 37-year-old schoolteacher."
NBC Nightly News aired a segment that showed ways that parents can keep track of where their children are and what they are up to. The report discussed how parents are using monitoring tools to find out exactly what their children are doing on the Internet. A parent who uses Spector talked about how he used the software.